Finally, Sunday has arrived. I woke up early. Put the coffee maker to work. I glanced outside and I saw a peek of sunshine coming through the clouds. I am impressed. The outdoor thermometer says it is 20 degrees. Awesome! It is double digits.
I love Sundays. A day to spend with others in the assembly room. A day to sing and speak. No silence for today. I can wipe that off the calendar for today. I see that we are going to have ice and rain this afternoon. I am going to go pick up Al and let him pick out a place to eat. I am sure we will be back and I will be home before the ice comes and strands people inside their homes.
I say hi to mom and dad, and my grandparents and cousins as this is the day of the week that I would normally be visiting with them after church. If I listen very hard I can hear mom telling me she loves me. Is that her or is that my desire to speak to her again?
I would inhale deeply as I walked into Grandma’s house. The smell of fried chicken would just make my mouth water. As I glanced around her tiny kitchen I would see home-made biscuits sitting on top of the stove to help keep them warm.
In the big cast iron skillet there would be gravy simmering. She would use the left-over drippings and bits of meat and stir flour and milk and oh the memories of that poured over some nice home-made mashed potatoes. I know, we don’t eat gravy today. It is bad for your health. I don’t even make it anymore. But you have to admit it was really delicious wasn’t it?
Grandma would never let it go to waste. After everyone was done eating she would be found lingering at the table dipping pieces of biscuits or bread in the gravy until it was gone. It can’t be that bad for you. She is 96 this year.
There would be frozen corn and canned green beans from the garden and sliced tomatoes that were guaranteed to cover a hamburger. For desserts there was at least two pies. Usually an apple and cherry or we sometimes received peach or black raspberry.
After everything was tidied up we would sit and chat for what seemed hours. We never ran out of things to say. All of us women and the little kids would stay inside and the men folk would go out to the barn or walk the land.
By the time supper rolled around no one was really hungry so piecing was the meal. Make your own supper. I am sure Mom enjoyed this as she didn’t have to cook. If you started cooking at the age of 21 and cooked until you reached the age of 65 you would be cooking for 528 months and 27,456 weeks of your life. What is the answer if you go ahead and figure out how many more times it is if you break it down into seven days a week and three times a day. Anyone have the answer? It is no wonder women all over the world love to be waited on by once in a while by having others cook for them.
Wow, those were the days! Today I have not done the math but how many of us eat out more than we eat at home? Busy schedules of taking kids to activities. Working and then adding over time on top of that. I can’t even begin to think about all the reasons we eat out instead of eating at home. Do you think this has anything to do with the huge weight gains over the years?
Well I have talked so much about those home cooked meals I am not getting hungry. I think I will go make myself a couple of eggs and one slice of whole wheat toast and start on my second cup of coffee. I will talk to you later on. Have a good morning!
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Who I am 
I miss going to my grandparents when I was young for a big Sunday meal! great post.
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isn’t it nice that we can hold so many wonderful memories within us………..
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yes it is!
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I love Sundays, too!
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it is like a brand new chance to start a new week, new beginnings new discoveries new challenges………….the beginning
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Terry , you sure brought back the wonderful memories of Sundays for me, my grandparents raised me so I never missed a Sunday dinner fried chicken spring and summer, roast beef fall and winter and always the potatoes and that wonderful gravy . I like you know we aren’t supposed to eat it but my gram lived to be 100 years and six days, she lived on her own the last 20 years in the home she went to as a bride 76 yrs they were married before gramps passed, so I don’t think it was the gravy. LOL
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we die so much earlier than our families before us. I am sure part of it is lack of exercise but i believe a lot of it is the processed foods we eat today, microwaves and lack of minerals and vitamins that we shun a way from to lose that few pounds
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Oh I agree I am constantly having to watch, with the hi bp, heart disease etc. just having a little fun with you. Imiss thiose comfort foods but anymore fruit, salad and very very little meat , eggs etc. and my home hasn’t seen a salt shaker in nearly 15 years.
Our grandparents did not have the sedentary lives we have now they worked off all the bad stuff before it could effect them., and as you said the processed fas tfood junk …yuck!!
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we are definitely in a bigger comfort zone than our grandparents day. too many conveniences today. I eat the same way you do
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that was a wondeful read! 🙂
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thank you so much Debra!
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I reckon home cooked meals are much better for the health.
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i believe they are too. we could live longer eating at home
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The first smell I had on Sunday mornings when I was growing up was the delicious sweetness of an apple pie baking in the kitchen next to the porch-turned-bedroom I slept in. My grandmother worked six days a week as a clerk in the general store but on Sundays she got up at her regular time of 5 a.m. to bake our dessert for lunch after church. Because I was spoiled, she’d cut me a piece for my breakfast and add a little bit of butter to melt over the top with an extra sprinkle of sugar. I’ve never tasted apple pie that yummy again in my last sixty years. Life was good.
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oh my gosh that sounds so scrumptious. what a way to have breakfast. you were so darn lucky!!!!!!
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My Mom was the one frying chicken… mashing potatoes…making gravy…Company every Sunday…Oh, to smell that again…
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oh me too, it tasted so good
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Great memories!
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I imagine you have a lot of memories from your youth also
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Terry……..what’s the gravy recipe? 😀
Sent from Samsung Mobile
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you brown the drippings and the bits of meat that are in the skillet with about three tablespoons of flour. add milk slowly stirring constantly until you get the thickness you desire. the trick is to make sure before you add the milk that the flour is smooth and bubbly, no lumps. the flour mixture will be thick soaking up all the drippings, then add milk slowly a little at a time
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it will be about two cups of milk in total
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Thank you!!! 😀
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Grandma always served veal on Sunday and when I read your post I could recall the smell from the kitchen.
She also made fresh sweet pickled cucumber salad …. and the gravy I was eating by spoon … so good.
Thanks for great Sunday dinner memories.
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my grandma used to take cucumbers and slice them, add sliced thin onions and add to that cut up chunks of firm tomatoes, then she would either use a combination of sugar, water and vinegar for the dressing or sometimes she added sour cream to the mixture. either way was delicious. Al and I like it still today. I will make him some this summer
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576,576 meals!! I live in MS…we still eat gravy!!
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that is a lot of meals!!!! Wow!!!!! I love gravy but hardly ever eat it
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